Homeland Handicrafts Artisan

Homeland Handicrafts(HH) was founded in order to create jobs- jobs for mostly women – in the regions of Armenia. HH develops market-oriented products that are based on techniques the women know and materials they have. We actively market these items through fairs and shops in Yerevan as well as through export. We still have a lot to do both on the product development and marketing sides in order to reach our goal of creating dozens of jobs for women in the regions of Armenia.

Prototype Fund: As women in villages generally do not have a capital base, it is necessary for HH to purchase the materials need to make the initial prototypes of products. Several prototypes are often necessary to make. The artisan contributes her work to this effort.

Workshop Participation: Product development is a time and work intensive task, and even more so when the artisans in the villages do not have the exposure to the market, not in Yerevan, and not abroad. This requires frequent visits to the villages where the artisans live and work in order to follow up on product concepts- making sure they understand the design and quality requirements, price calculations, labeling, packaging, etc. This means that the volunteers in HH must make frequent trips to each project that we cooperate with. This is very demanding on time and expenses, but is part of the job creation task we have taken up ourselves.

Promotion Fairs: It is important to participate in numerous fairs during the year for several reasons: 1) to sell products, 2) to introduce the artisans to the market, getting feedback on design, price, presentation, etc., 3) identifying potential wholesale customers and contacts for developing more long term business and export relationships.

Marketing Tools: To create jobs, HH must have an active marketing profile. Banners, brochures and flyers are needed to use/distribute at fairs and in other public forums. The www.homelandhandicrafts.org website is another strong marketing tool that will be kept up to date from showcasing the HH effort.

Homeland Handicrafts (HH) travels extensively throughout the regions of Armenia to identify, cultivate and follow up artisans, so that they might make products that can be sold and thus create a sustainable livelihood for them. We keep the expenses down as far as possible by sleeping on couches and eating cheap. Still, we need to buy bus tickets or pay for gas in order to get to these places. This comes out of our private pockets. We would appreciate support to be able to do our voluntary work to create jobs in the regions of Armenia. Funds are needed to underwrite transportation costs to help HH visit and work with these artisans.